Sport fishing column for June 4 to 11, 2012

"Inside the trailer ? Bill began making a pot of coffee. Fly lines hung from pegs and fly-tying tools lay on a crowded shelf along with many boxes of flies. Half a dozen spare rods were tied to the ceiling. Bill began to recount his day with ? dramatic detail. His tremendous, expressive hands flew through the cramped enclosure like bats in lighted room ? gestures of casting, hooking, and fighting fish ? Bill's eyes would focus on imagined water somewhere beyond ? Transported he'd turn to follow the progress of line downstream until a salmon took ?" passage taken from "The Anglers Coast," by Russell Chatham.

Do you have any memories like that? Mine started with a man named Grant Ramsey. It was the May fishing trip of 1972 and I got to fish with the master angler of my Dad's archery club. I had never seen anyone fly fish before. Oh I had watched Gadabout Gaddis (Sunday afternoon sport fishing personality of the 1960's) on television, by that was a world away. This was up close and in my face. I was in awe as I watch Grant command seventy feet of fly line with his old glass rod. Then when he landed the biggest trout I had ever seen, I knew I wanted to be a fly fisherman and not just any fly fisherman, I wanted to be a master just like Grant.

Memories that last a lifetime are made every year, at fish camps all over this continent. Unlikely heroes become bigger than life, as wide eyed youngsters watch family members and friends transform fish stories to reality before their young eyes. In two weeks you have the opportunity to be that angler, on the BC Free Family Fishing Weekend. How about it Dad's, are you up to the challenge?

The Report

Our lower mainland lake fishing is good. Andy press of the WCBA wants everyone to know that Silvermere Lake is fishing AAA for bass. For wet (sinking) fly trout fishing try: Chironomid, Bloodworm, Red Spratley, Coachman, Zulu, American Coachman, Professor, Wooly Bugger, Micro Leach, Dragonfly Nymph, Sixpack, Doc Spratley, Pumpkinhead, or Baggy Shrimp. For dry (floating) fly trout fishing try: Tom Thumb, Irresistible, Royal Coachman, Renegade, Elk hair Caddis, Black Gnat, Griffith Gnat, or Lady McConnel. For kokanee try: Red Ibis, Double Trued, Blood Worm, San Juan Worm, Red Spratley, or Red Carey. For bass try: Zonker, Clouser's Deep Minnow, Lefty's Deceiver, Dolly Whacker, Big Black, Wooly bugger, or Crayfish. For panfish try: Wooly Bugger, Micro Leach, Bucktail, Dolly Whacker, Bloodworm, Chironomid.

Fishing on our interior lakes is good. For wet fly fishing try: Chironomid, Bloodworm, Halfback, 52 Buick, Pumpkinhead, Big Black, Micro Leach, Coachman, Green Spratley, Carey Special, Souboo, or Baggy Shrimp. For Dry fly fishing on those warm afternoons, try: Lady McConnel, Black Gnat, Double Hackled Peacock, Griffith Gnat, Elk Haired Caddis, Irresistible, Sofa Pillow, or Tom Thumb.

The Greg Clark Memorial family fishing derby is on Saturday June 16. Tickets are available at Chilliwack Dart & Tackle, Kent Outdoors, Fred's Custom Tackle, Rosedale mini Mart, or Cultus Lake Golf Course.